Board of Trustees Work Session
To the June 13 work session of the Croton Point Hudson Board of Trustees. Before we begin our future presentations, we'd like to prepare some housekeeping specifically for William Leave and is currently on the Water Control Commission to the Water Fund Advisory Council. Bill of vacancy. Okay. Please proceed.
You just turn it over to us? Go ahead, Nancy. Okay. Thank you. I'm Nancy Schatzke. I'm here with Adam Decker, and we have completed, at your request, a housing study in the village. So we're gonna jointly review about a dozen slides that summarize those results. That report is available to you in full. A lot of credit goes to mister Decker for excellent writing and organizational skills. I don't wanna make sure that that gets Yeah. Yeah. Gets acknowledged.
The committees. Yeah. That was a very successful process. I'd say, all in all, we had pretty good participation. Those are all things you'll hear about a little bit as we go through this. We're gonna end with several recommendations for your future consideration just so you know where we're headed. And we're gonna start with with Adam reviewing some of the background and history that got us here, and I'll try to keep up with you on slides.
Okay. Yeah. So the mayor Pugh created the Croton Housing Task Force partly, I think, speaking for you, in results of the Westchester County Housing Needs Assessment coming out. But it actually has a it's something that was actually recommended back in the original comprehensive plan of 2003 that identified the creative study of the existing housing situation while they aid in understanding the need for affordable housing in the future and then identifying opportunities for expansion of the affordable housing stock. And it gave us a bunch of specific recommendations. I dove pretty deep into the Croton comprehensive plan, and it's one of the things that I would like to touch on in the slides and also a little outside the slides. I can do that now or a little later. One of the things that I think is worthy of study for the board is to look back at the Croton Conversation Plan, the last full one of 2003, because its goals and recommendations, I think, have kind of maybe gone away from where it originally you know, there are a lot of comprehensive plan was done very well and assert and and really pulled the village into what the village's needs were at the time and what his ideas were at the time. But some of the recommendations were acted on in a way that turned out to kind of perhaps have the opposite effects. And some, I think we've all learned things in twenty years that we didn't know. I think but even then, I think there's there's this line in in what I kept coming back to in in this housing report. And I'm thinking about Croton, is that we actually have if I wanted to say and the and the comprehensive plan says this, that if if you wanted to choose the perfect neighborhood in Croton and one of the ones that if you wanted to say, like, this is what a neighborhood like, what is makes Croton great. We'd let you put people to harm the Harmon neighborhood. Right? You you take them around Harmon or you take them around the Upper Village, give them to where they are village. But then when the comprehensive plan came out with these recommendations and kind of turned those into action items, one of the things it did was made it much harder for anyone to come up with another Harmon or another
upper village. And in fact, in place things with Harmon and in the upper village that will slowly make it harder for them to continue vibrantly. One of the recommendations in the comprehensive plan is to move the buildings towards the zoning of Harmon and the Upper Village. And I would say that there is a logic to that. You want conforming use. But I would also say that in some ways, we should also be considering moving the zoning more towards the building. But the the there are things we like that we like how close the houses are in Harlem. We like that the stairs and the great setback. But then when we thought of the future in 2003, we make sure there are setbacks, and we make sure there, you know, the the that and we made it harder to you know, if you look at an upper Village building that is now a 100 years old, it'd be hard to replace it with our current zoning, you know, and if you wanted a multiuse building, it's harder to do that now. So I think one thing to do is kind of look back at what the actual goals were. And one of the other things that comes up very much, especially, you know, our committee started before the pandemic, but I think everyone has seen these changes in the pandemic. We'll talk about it in the slides. The one of the big recommendations was to maintain economic diversity in the village. And and the comprehensive plan solution to that is to make sure not to take on too many projects that will raise people's taxes. And I think in the twenty years since, we've seen that to maintain that economic diversity is gonna take some rethinking of how we zone and, like,
whether RA 40 zoning is something that necessarily is gonna ever I think we we calculated the median income you need for a house right now and, you know, whether you could it's hard to move the zoning back to the covers of finances up zoning as a way to make something bigger, but I think about zoning something where you increase the amount of use in the zone area. We get up zone areas to allow more development. So
just just putting a fine point on what you were just saying, the bottom bullet on this slide shows the calculation that today, the minimum income needed for the for the median home in the village is over $200,000 a year.
And I I calculated just, you know, going back on myself that we had more sales and houses of of over 1,000,000 than under 500,000
in the past six months, nine months. So just some realities of evolution in the community, not things not all things that can be controlled, but things that then when you think about what you're gonna do next, you have to realistically you have to realistically look at.
So you wanna focus on any of these other things you're looking for? So the Westchester County Housing needs assessment, came out of Westchester County in 2019 before the pandemic, kind of identified a number of issues in in all the villages and towns in Westchester. And our we could spot immediately as a committee some of the things we wanted to focus on and and some of the things I think our focus continue to focus on. And one of those is the small number of rental units in in Croton. The fact that a lot of the households, especially the renter households in Croton are severely cost burdened. And then there's a growing gap between renter occupied housing and see if you can see that's the older median income number of owner occupied units of 149,000. So these are concerns when you talk about the economic diversity idea that's embedded in the in the governance plan. And that's so
two years. I think we've gathered a lot of information and a lot of information changed as we were gathering it. I think we did a good job of synthesizing all of it. We had great we invited a lot of speakers to get a lot of different opinions. And as recall, we also had a public facing forum with the village and we had a lot of great we had a great turnout for that. It was over Zoom. But we had a lot of great speakers who came and discussed the difficulties of affordability in Croton. And being I don't wanna, you know, give a shout out to a number of people we saw, like, Dan O'Connor and then another special a lot of other housing experts and housing people involved in affordable housing and involved in kind of rethinking how villages and towns think about housing and acts on their apartments and rental units. We did a lot of research. Yes. We said we hosted a public facing meeting, which included Norma Drummond, who is the Westchester Housing Planning Commissioner. And, you know, we heard a lot of concerns affordability and then we heard the opposite concern that there might be a push on the schools or on our infrastructure.
And I think the takeaway is that you need to have good data. You need to have you need to take the time to figure out what the data is, and you need to think big about the things. And I think one of the things that one of our organizations that comes later is kind of understanding how we can make data more freely available and and useful. One of observations we had, we spoke with people who had you can take over whenever you want that. So if you want the No. You can go and I'll I'll I'll put I'll take it. One of the things we noticed and we want we're talking about data that we came up with a bunch of ways that each of which turned out to be illegal in different ways. Was to try to get a hold of what the actual number of renters are in Croton that we thought that the accounts were probably under counting people. And this will be this will be represented in one of our recommendations. Yeah. We have ways that yeah. That have come yeah. People have come forward with better ways to account for rental units or at least stay on top of rental units. But one of the things that historically villages have had trouble with is rental units that are outside of the villages might not even know about, that are outside of the permitted zoning use or it might be an existing multifamily that is has a greater number of units than the village knows. There's really nothing that
there's no system in place that accounts for that. Village has very few tools,
very few tools in its toolbox right now to allow it to know or manage that housing stock. That's correct.
and you throw in, you know, that we haven't had a full assessment too that that also and then that creates a counter incentive to ever really I mean, one of the ideas is the accessory dwelling unit. One of the problems with it might be that people are afraid to announce any change to their house because and so so one of the issues so we wanted to try to get a hold of how many substandard rental units were and how much overcrowding there was, and there there really isn't a way to do it that, you know, doesn't push the census data is very clear that you can't use census data for things like that, and we didn't wanna get we figured out some ways you probably could figure it out, but we decided that it would kinda be a privacy concern. So we just wanna leave it to you to act on in the future. Yeah. I mean, there are always you could forward looking to it, but there are ways that you'd like know, there are ways that you can kind of present evidence, but we decided not to go forward with them. And we also talked to tenants in so as as I'm sure you know, we have the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, but it really only covers one building in Croton currently. We talked to tenants in Barry Manor about what it was like to live under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act and we also talked to residents who were in the other multifamily buildings of substantial size in Croton about what it was like to live without the Emergency Tenant Protection Act.
And the Not surprisingly. Yeah. Not surprisingly, the the tenants in in bearing manner felt like they had more protections. They the the one of the things similar to the village not having much ability to look at units, those historically hasn't had a lot of power over the kind of like, when you think of a New York City apartment, there's a lot of ways in which the city can just kind of regulate the apartment experience and make sure that tenants are being protected. And and the tools the village has are are fairly limited right now. And and I think some of our speakers pointed to new approaches, the Emergency Tenant Protection Act is is a whole set of tools. I think one of one of the conversations we had in our task force would be that and one of our recommendations still is that all apartment that that the village website include a list of rights for tenants. But one of the things that would make that website pretty small for people not of the emergency tenant protection act is that there aren't that many rights in the village can actually help with when the for units that are not. But the ETA opens up another set of
of of regulate. And I wanna add here that I think having having been very active in the effort to put ETPA in place when we did, And I I hate to compare it to what the federal government is trying to do around gun control at the moment, but it is sort of a matter of can we do something. So we did something. We did the only development in the village of over 60 units. But I think that what's happened over time, which is kind of why you sometimes take that approach, which is to do something that seems inadequate, but it takes it takes us a step forward, is that now over time, I think we have really proved that the ETPA has value and does not have a very big downside, which, of course, is what a lot of people were were very fearful of. And so I you know, now that it's so many years later, I think other opportunities to to to move forward to maybe rethink that and be a little bolder at this point, might might exist. I think we just wanna comment that the accept accept accessory dwelling unit air, ordinance was a place where the village was forward thinking and jumped in there right away, but it hasn't had terribly much success. I think there are some things about that that we heard at the task force meetings that can maybe be applied to to improve it. Just a couple of other observations I wanna we wanna make sure we cover. This is the last slide, Adam, for you on on observations.
We wanted you know, the the village doesn't have a lot of ability to kind of push landlords and the homeowners into or not even just push, but make sure that, you know, one of the things that came up was that there are I mean, in this this maybe the pandemic has changed because the the value of the home increased. But you have one of the things that housing report showed was that a lot of lot it's a lot of owner occupied houses that are in bad condition and substandard condition. And for the village, there's very few tools that can that that as we understand it is available to it, and and the village do its best to use the tools it has. The rental units, because of the difference because there is that relationship different relationship that villages has does have some more tools towards pushing landlords.
But that is something that should be considered, the the these the the in both sets. And we talked about the the lack of a time wide reassessment since the sixties has created disparities in valuation. And no one ever wants to do it, but, you know, it means that there is a lot of I mean, we all know that there is a lot of maybe code ignoring going on in different places, and that is gonna that creates issues, especially when we think about units, especially with multifamily units that maybe not on the code, not on the On the books, really. Not not on the up and up. Yeah. And especially with an aging housing stock, you know, you have, you know, risks to the people living in them. You know, the the the city recently went the you know, this constant debate whether whether non you know, illegal units are good because they provide housing to people who couldn't otherwise get them or illegal units are bad. And then you see the flooding in the city where people died because they were in basements that they didn't know about. And you can't like, that is just bad. That there is no it's hard to make that argument the other way. So whether we've accidentally created that situation while thinking of it in a different way is is something that should be considered. The and then, yeah, the the economic diversity issue becomes ever more important, I think. The lack of multifamily, lack of rental units, and it's just Croton is is fast becoming a a town full of very wealthy people, which is not, I think, what
historically Croton has been. I think Croton has been a town that had a lot of different populations coming together in in what was was was great. And I think when you hear people talk about what how Croton was once good or what's great about Croton, I think we need to make sure that that continues for the future, that that the kind of that this be a village that that is a coming together of of many
communities and many different people and many different And that's and that that's reflected by the economic diversity of the of the population supported by the economic diversity of the housing that's available. One just is tied to the other.
And, like, hey. Like, historically, people refer to us as a train town. Right? But then you look at the MTA salaries or or a mentor salaries versus what to the $200,000 that's been required by a house, and it becomes increasingly less likely to be a train town. Right.
So we're gonna move into I think there were three or four slides. I I should have counted up how many recommendations there are, but I don't remember. There are a lot of ideas. Yeah. There are a bunch of ideas here.
With intention that, you know, that you guys wouldn't choose all of them. We wanted to get you. Have
Right? Some And and I I feel also I really wanna comment that I think it's important to be putting this presentation in the context of where we are today, which is that, fingers crossed, we have two fairly significant developments on the boards in the village. One independent of the village itself and the other very much driven by the village in the draw with the with the Regan Corporation or whatever the right name of that is for quite a few units. And and then in the old best web location, I've been able to figure out exactly where that one stands, but I haven't followed up recently. We don't see any movement there yet, but I believe that we will. And and both of those projects are gonna change some of these numbers a little bit. But I don't think we wanna feel like we're done. We got the we got these two good ones and now we're finished. So but at the same time, I think it's important that we recognize that those that those are in the hot. So
I'll I'll start with a few of these. I think some of them we don't have to spend much time on at all, and some of them you may wanna ask us some more questions about even now as we look at them. And and then Adam and I will speak to will speak to these. Of course, it's really important, and I think this first bullet is understood. And that is that we don't have a lot of land in the village to look at to say, oh, let's go build a new a Harmon two over there in that corner. Let's let's have another Harmon. And so that really creates the necessity to be more creative, And that creativity comes from repurposing and replacing existing structures and potentially rezoning. So that's just sort of out there, something that something to be addressed. We also, from things that we learned, really saw the opportunity to create a community land trust. One normally thinks of community land trust in the as a concept for preserving open space. But it's also an opportunity to collect various lots and then create the opportunity to do something more with contingent lots that you've that you've collected over time. So just another thought to to put out there. A minor item, but it seems like it would be very valuable. The town of Cortlandt should always be notifying you of any in rent property in the town that may be auctioned. We don't we don't want that happening to a property that
we didn't know where we didn't know that was gonna happen. And then that leads to the the community land trust. Right? Like, maybe maybe this is a piece of land that doesn't look great even for a single family road. But then if you look at around it, then you're like, you know what? Hold on with this long enough.
Let's get it. Let's hold on to it. And then when we get the next piece, it'll begin to come together into something that can be that can be done. And, of course and our village engineer has always been my buddy in this effort. So it is by no means a criticism, but it is really important to continue to identify existing large lots. And we're actually gonna recommend the specific large lot before we're done with these recommendations.
But I I was speaking to how Dan O'Connor actually moved my mind a little in a way. I forget what the context was. It was something about, like, unusable lots or something like that. And he said, well, you know, everything was once unusable. And especially in Croton, you think about how many lots that they probably didn't think was were Buildable. Buildable. And, like, you think about even how the train lied, like, when no one you know, many different pieces of Croton, someone at some time said this this could not be built on. And I think that's one of the things to think about is that we can, you know, rework lots in a way and refine find places that you not necessarily think of maybe not maybe they aren't even buildable today, but maybe there is a future stuff. Right. Oh, it should be another reason for the land trust. But I think also keeping Dan in that
role that he has played in the past for identifying opportunities is is really important. This next one is, in my opinion, absolutely one of the top three, in this series of of recommendations. And, oh, I seem to have screwed up this text size up. I apologize. But, anyway, create a registry of all rental units in the village and enable inspections of units by the village engineer and the fire inspector. And I I think that there are all kinds of ways to do that legally, And it just it it is, I think, a number one finding of this effort that that's something that we really need to be able to do in order to have the village operating effectively for its citizens in at this point in in our in our lives. We already mentioned it, but here's the notion of lowering the ETPA down from over 60 units to something more reasonable, perhaps even to the very lowest number, which is six. We definitely we learned some things from Ossining that that might play into this that should be considered, but that is definitely an area for further investigation and and consideration as is modification of the accessory dwelling unit ordinance.
The the county has just passed a new one that might present a building block for us to be able to use in reevaluating our own. Just another really, I think, really good follow-up topic for consideration. So most of you know my office is in the old Village Gallery building just by the railroad station and right next to the extended railroad station parking lot, which is now always empty. So there's a piece of village property that's just calling out. And one of the things that I find particularly exciting about that one, having now done several development projects of housing in the village, is the notion that you could do mixed income there because the views of the river, the walk to the train station, there are some well paid folks who would love to have an apartment there. And some market rate rents could help offset the operating costs for some affordable housing. Always always a boom to an affordable housing project, which is having to build its operating budget at affordable prices, which is a bit challenging. So that the opportunity for a transit oriented development there is is really very exciting.
A a completely other side of issues, I think, so moving away completely, is the need to protect residents. If we're gonna do things that encourage out of compliance units to be removed or for changes to be made that could make it impossible for a person to live in their unit for some period of time while those changes are made. I think it's it's very important that the village be thinking in advance about how to protect residents from
those issues. And this is something that has come up in Croton that people have finally found through to their landlord that there's their unit is unsafe. The the landlord then kicks them out of the unit since it's not safe.
And because we have such a tight rental market, these are the things that, you know, if we had a if we had a rental market that was, you know, that was actually flowing, the the solution is you can have a bad landlord as you just find a new landlord. But that is not something that Croton has really or Westchester house, really. Right.
Right. That's just not not an issue that we have here not an option that we have here. This next one is also sort of a in a separate subject area, which is it's wonderful that we require a certain amount of affordable housing, whenever a developer is building any number of units. And then we're gonna get a percentage of those for or they are required. That is percentage of those fee affordable units. One of the concerns that we have and that we heard from other professionals, in the housing arena is that a landlord whose whole business is dealing at market rate is not a good landlord have three affordable housing units that that that he or she is required to have because it was mandated in in village in village code. And it makes a lot more sense to make sure that that market rate developer will work with an organization that does have experience in affordable housing so that there can be some unit management that matches the type of housing that it is. And we are lucky. We're we're lucky to have several options for that that we all have considerable relationship with. I mean, not really the Croton Housing Network, although we could be on that list. But Westchester, with whom we work to manage our own units, have a lot of experience, and the Intervention Council for Action and other people in Ossining who are doing some of this. So and there are others who just need to identify them. So looking for that as perhaps a change that we would build into the ordinance that requires the affordable units might might make a lot of sense. Last couple of points here. Adam Adam, I think, already commented on the fact that it would be really good and really easy
to make sure that there's something on the village website that makes sure that tenants know what their rights are. And even to consider that the village board would have an open meeting once a year and invite renters in the village
to come and speak to the board about the issues that they have as as renters in the village. And you could imagine and then and then I would also say the website should also have the right contacts of who you of where they should reach out to you because that was what that came up. Yeah. Who do you call? And they end up calling the police lot just because it seems like the the best twenty four hour response thing. But but that things such as, like, my unit doesn't have smoke detectors. My unit doesn't have I'm cold. I am like, we don't we're not Croton has never kind of set up that system or had a set of, you know, contacts and and how you should get help for those things. And then, you know, I know that the best person to call is Dan O'Connor, but that's not something that comes clear on the website. So and I think when you pair this with what we talked about about making sure there's a village registry of units, you have a better and then you know that if someone's calling and saying that their landlord isn't giving them heat, and then you're like, well, you're not even in the registry, then we need to also have that piece. Kind of understand that. Loop in place.
But I think also in creating this registry, there has to be a period of time that is really non punitive to encourage people to put their units on that registry.
And get them up to, yeah, get them on the registry and also get and give some opportunities for kind of improvement to make it up to code and up to and make sure that we're giving the it's in the village's best interest for the to the fire code for the sake of Absolutely. Yeah. And I and and it isn't in our recommendations, but I can't help but be thinking about it now as we're talking about all of this, which is
that collaboration and coordination with county programs that could at times be available. They're not always available, but they are sometimes that are available to support homeowners in and homeowners who have rental units. I think being able to direct some of our local people to county resources is another thing that we should think about. And this and this concluding bullet is know, call them the. Anne knows that because I've been calling them the meanies for decades now. But the best way to fight the meanies is with facts. And, I had a meeting of the Croton Housing Network right before this this evening, and there are two of us on the board of the Croton Housing Network who grew up here. The school classes are way smaller than they were when Patty and I were going to school. Those people who think we're buried in the school system don't know how much fun Patty and I had growing up here and no complaints. Right? So it is really we think out of this effort would be very helpful to, create a fact sheet. And, you know, as I'm saying this out loud, maybe this is something the Croton Housing Network does in conjunction with the village board. From the village engineer. And yeah. But well, and I'm thinking the village engineer plays a big role in it. The school peeps play a big role in it. But maybe it gives everybody a little bit of an arm's length thing if we if we at the Croton Housing Network actually publish it. But I think it really is time to have the fact sheet available to respond to the meanings and to just be able to cut that crap off. It's that's just not you know, as as the nonprofit Westchester is doing a session this Wednesday called Yemenism. Yes. Yes. In my backyard instead of no in my backyard. And I think the best way for us to battle the Nindiism is with a fact sheet that just lays bare that we are more than able to absorb some peeps into this community.
I think in the in the in our report, here's a chart that shows the school population and how essentially it drops. I mean, you'll that and that is probably true that a bunch of new families moved into the village during the pandemic. And then that gets to a different issue in the village that most I mean, it actually came up in the 2003 comprehensive report that that when someone moves to the village, come in with a family, which isn't necessarily true in other parts of. But it all comes in this some of the same issues. Right? But one of the reasons, like, housing is expensive here and what justifies it is the school system in a way. So you end up with extra people, people moving in only when it makes sense for them to have that cost. And then that's they come in with kids. But I think, you know, so you might see some especially, you know, you ended up with a lot of people moving to Croton a little earlier maybe than they expected. So you might see and so you might see some jump in the school numbers the next year or two from the pandemic, but I think slowly those are gonna be the people who were gonna move here from Brooklyn anyway, and they just got here a little earlier or and not not just Brooklyn, but
you also I think you can't battle the the the general population that there is a smaller families that are having fewer kids. So that number affects the school population much more than a couple years of housing changes that the family size of a family in Westchester has has decreased and that has had lasting effects on the school and the school population. And the school is what comes up a lot, but the other infrastructure things and Dan O'Connor was very clear that we have a lot of water and sewage capacity. He was very proud of it. And so, like, some people say, what about our infrastructure? And I think I think the answer is that we can handle it. And then and some of the road issues, you know, you might actually if you have some people living in Croton instead of commuting into Croton to do the jobs in in Croton, you would actually possibly decrease, you know, or Traffic. Net of price of traffic. Right.
And then yeah. So a lot of those points, I mean, I really would recommend that all of you read the full report. It's not that long, and I and I think it has more color and detail than than we're bringing to you tonight. But this is a at least an overview and summary of of what's in that report. So we move on. I think any ways that Yeah. That we can help do that? Ideas, and, you know, we hope you have any questions about any of them.
You know, we have a lot of good resources in our village. Think that people who are are massive, one of them, that have a lot of experience in this and helping, you know, helping the village move forward in a in a positive way.
Good. I think this is a a terrific report, and I I I agree with most of what you have to say. I I'd just like to provide a little historical perspective, which seems to be my role in life here. But What what what But with regard to the 2003 comprehensive plan, I mean, that was a long time coming. And the only thing that existed before that was the 1977 master plan, which was in those days in New York State, master plans were done by planning boards. And then they changed the state law, and then comprehensive plans became the product of a village board and became the goals of the board. But our 1977 master plan actually called for they well, they didn't call for it, but they purse they they were looking at the year 2000 as to what they were thinking about Right. In 1977. So far away. And they anticipated that it would be 12,000 plus population in 2000, which Wow. Were not there. And we're about 4,000 short of that now twenty years later. But but they were also very oriented towards commercial development and industrial development. So and we need to keep in perspective that many of the areas that are developed now, like Arrowcrest and 0.5 Moon Bay and River Landing and where the golf courses were totally undeveloped at that. Yes. And so a lot of what came out of the 1977 master plan was oriented towards commercial development and industrial development, and that's how they and that's kind of what the 2003 mess comprehensive plan was trying to readjust And respond to respond to. Because by that time, some of the things I've just mentioned had already happened. And so they were adjusting to that and the fact that
there was no way that we were gonna be at December and 2000 and because we were already there and it wasn't. Right. And we were and we were close to that number. And so I just wanted to point that out as as part of the planning process because I was in fact chairman of the 2003 comprehensive plan. And so I I recall that. I just also wanted to say that reassessment for the village, which, you know, comes up regularly. And I'm sure you're aware of this, but not everybody understands that this can be a very difficult issue for a village that's within a town because for us to reassess all our properties
and the town doesn't do it Yeah. It's like a total nightmare. Yeah. I think even if the town does it, it will be a nightmare. Yes. But but but does that but just so I walk away with the right understanding of that, Anne Mhmm. Does does that mean that in order to tackle that issue at some point, it has to be tackled at the town level? I think to make sense for us,
this is my opinion, but to make sense for us, I think it has to be done at the town level. Yeah.
See, for me, they they think no town goes into it thinking it's going to be pleasant, and I don't think it No. Because I really had the longer you put it on. No. It's gonna be it's gonna be.
Once you undertake it, there's gonna be probably about a three year process where To do it. To get it all straightened out when you're gonna get a lot of people that will obviously not be happy with their reassessment, and they will file Right. Challenges. Challenges.
And to work that all out is probably probably three to four years. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, just to be frank, I don't really view that as being a worthwhile process when the town assessment is what determines approximately three quarters of your property taxes because it's not just for them. It's for the county, for the school. For the school as well. Yes. In the village, it's just for the village, which and it's about a quarter if that of your property tax bill. Going through that extensive process is
But we're becoming the town of Portland as a whole is becoming increasingly an outlier in its reassessment. I think I think the last reassessment was in the fifties or sixties, initially. And, essentially, like, most people a lot of communities in Southern Westchester have moved to constant reassessment, but just as the system just Well, once you, I think, embark on this, then you're gonna wanna do it.
Because you don't wanna wanna find yourself in this situation. Whatever is the appropriate time frame, every two years or five years or whatever. Something like this is crazy. Yeah. So and the only other thing I wanted to throw in here, and it's not directly relevant, but but it is in the sense of of having working families being able to live here. And something I only became aware of really, recently when I was doing some looking through old old planning board minutes from the sixties when Route 9 was put in. Yep. And Route 9 basically took out a whole lot of working family Housing. Housing that is to the west of North Riverside now Absolutely. Over the tavern is and the fire station, Washington engine. All of that was on the other side of the road. There were Yes. Blocks of, you know, houses there. It was all gone, and it was mostly working families that lived there. And and it was at that time, and it was part of this whole process. It's not clear to me exactly how it happened, but the state helped in it. That very manner was was created. Approved. Approved and created. Right. Which was specifically to try to help relocate the people that were being pushed out by Route 9 to be able to stay in the village. I don't know how that becomes relevant to this, but it's just something that Well, a very interesting fact for sure.
And so I do think Barren Banner is something that, you know, I think you hear people complain about how what would a multifamily do to Croton? Like, else would be too big for Croton or this will not fit in the Croton? And Well, at the time, yeah, it was, you know, because it was instead of being individual homes and stuff, it was, you know But I think that Barry Manor is such an important part of Croton. And so part of Croton that, like, people don't even think about it when they have that when they you have this Facebook arguments or go, like, well, that's gonna be the biggest apartment building in Croton. They're like, well, that's not. It's still close. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I think that parent community just shows that these multifamily polyfamilies can be part of Croton and are are part of Croton and, you know, an important part of our community so that we shouldn't there was a time when Barmanera was new and that we shouldn't be necessarily opposed to things that will become part of the the village just as much as Barmanera will. Right.
Did. Yeah. And yeah. I do think that I think what you said is interesting too in the 2003 comprehensive plan because you see some of the the note the people are not happy with how the some of the previous developments have gone, but don't consider that maybe smaller zoning would be more to their liking that they kind of the the one of the things it says is no more gated communities. But the the main like, the I think that school the resistance to school size, which was an issue in 2003, that school was at a capacity at least, and it's the most that ever had. I think made that idea that new development could be smaller size as something that wasn't really considered.
Yeah. No. I I I I wouldn't disagree with that. And so, anyway, I just wanna throw those thoughts in There is my own perspective and the machine, but I really think this is a terrific report. Appreciate it. A lot that we can work going forward. That's great. And I I think just one last thought, which is that I think that the people who participated in the task force,
it asked to do more for the village would say yes. Yeah. And so that's something else that you get to consider, which is, oh, would you just go look at this for a little more here, buddy? I think, in fact, that group is committed to these issues.
Well, I think, also, I mean, I think what was cool about the committee and but I think it's true, this village is full of experts. I mean, it sounds but, I mean, like, actual people who are experts in their field, and and it's a great resource to have.
Yeah. Well, I I just wanted to add my voice to the conversation here. I thought this was magnificent, and I I I look at it just speaking as just as an individual trustee, but I look on this as our charter for going forward. I'm not saying that we can do everything that's in here, but I happen to think that everything that we will do is in here. And so I think this is a great point of departure. I mean, I've sat in your position on different commissions in different places. And I know the most important thing is, a, get good ideas, but then to get them implemented. So I really appreciate the conversation that we're having about the implementation and how and which ones we move forward with are, I think are really important. Couple of questions though. One is, I'll ask it in a negative way. Sometimes we want to do the simplest things here in the village, but then we find out we're required to go to Albany to get authorizing legislation. As far as I can tell, there's not among the things that you've suggested most of these or maybe all of them can be done within our own homes, which I think is Yes. I think that's true. Yes. Actually,
New York. That's great. And then I the community land trust thing, whether we do it formally or informally, just the idea of starting to catalog and then capture some of these disparate pieces of land out there. You just never know. There are talented think, Adams, you alluded to there are talented builders here in town who see things that some of us don't see and all of a sudden there's a great house there. So I think that's terrific. Another just observation is and by the way, of two projects that you mentioned, Lance, that underway hopefully, Reagan and the one at 25 South Riverside North Riverside. The members of the committee have already been helpful on those at critical points. And I think you're aware of that and we thank you for that. And I see that as sort of an ongoing thing like you suggested as well. One thought I just wanted to share with you and just get your general reactions. And, Nancy, you talked about that large plot of land near your office that we lovingly call Lot A. And we have we're in various aspects of zoning study on what the future of that might be, which is great. We're going to get some feedback from our professional planners on that. We're looking forward to that. I view it because I've seen it done in other places that that's large enough and our needs are large enough that that has the capacity to be not just a building, but a community.
that means lots of housing by Croton standards, a significant amount of housing, but some other things as well, including community amenities, undefined
by me. But, you know Yes. But something that brings other parts of the community there Exactly. In order to make it part of the building. Exactly. And 1000%.
What I'm what I'm really looking forward to is working with you on very specific issue. And now now we're, you know, we're sort of fast forwarding, you know, months or maybe a little bit longer. But if we got to the point where that parcel where we were going to ask for proposals on what to do there and we want to think big and we want to think really about, Adam, I think you're talking about the plan that said we need more Harmons, we need more upper villages. That's I think where the capacity is. But the question I have and is how properly and with no answer today, but the question I'll be answer to the question I'll be looking for is how do we incentivize the development community to be amenable to that concept of helping us create this new community. I saw it in Montgomery County, where one of the most well known theaters in Downtown Bethesda was part of the deal for putting up an office building on what used to be you probably know what I'm talking about, what used to be the hot shops parking lots. So we'll have these discussions. But I think we're not going to have many large opportunities
in its potential. So my thought on that is just think big Croton and let's see what happens. And then on so many of the other proposals that you have, I think they've got so much merit. And I think it's just a question of a little more work on our end, staging them in the right way, figuring out. But it makes a lot of sense. And going back, and I know people have concerns. But if you take every project that we're working on now and we can throw in 1380 Albany, which is potential 10 units. 20. But if you add all of those up, it comes to and we know how long anything takes in the building world and the government world. If you add all those three projects up, you're talking about 92 units. I was going to say you won't even 90 crack one two. And so maybe half of those folks are blessed with children. So you're talking about maybe 150 more Croton residents who we need, by the way, for a lot of lot of different things. So so I so I think my my other button is don't worry, Croton. Right. Exactly. And I think that's part of the fact sheet concept. Right? Yeah. Is that that's just another bullet on that fact sheet. Everything
building blocks today that's on the that's on the docket doesn't amount to a Philippines, folks. And then when you look at it, yes, especially compared to previous decades of growth and then especially I think the 02/2010 and 2010 to 2020 were some of the lowest programs that we're having in terms of buildings. And
flipping that around, what it really means though is that 92 more families get to call this unique place home. So I just want to thank you. This is as I said, this is my charter for going forward. That's
very that's very nice to hear. I I just wanna close by saying, and I I've said this to all kinds of people you guys don't know, but people who know how involved I am in in housing issues for such a long time. What an extraordinary reward it is to have a village board that is committed to housing, that it's not coming here to beg for an audience. It's not coming here to say, really, I'm not Looney Tunes, guys. This is a good idea. In fact, as you all, I think, have maybe heard me say, my only complaint is you're gonna build more units in one project than I've been able to build in thirty years. So I I I just really I I want you four to know how profound my personal thanks is for having for having a village board. You know, if we go on these pictures, I started all of this back over here. And it's and and we really are obviously at a very special time. And it's I'm I it really warms my heart to be here. So thank you.
Thank you, Valerie. Thank you. Sure. I I have a couple of questions. You you were talking before about, displaced persons, people who maybe have to leave their Apartments.
Well, I think the challenge is it'll never be very big numbers. But as we look at and and then also may have some thoughts about this. But as you look at enforcing law Mhmm. That could cause an existing accessory dwelling unit to disappear. Right. Right? So so I think the question is that is making sure that ordinances we write would actually make the landlords responsible for offsetting those costs of ensuring that that person is not a displaced person. And I think it's a little bit tricky because, again, as as as we said before, you know, it's not like we just have well, there's plenty of apartments over there. Go rent another apartment. Yes. Right. But doing something that plans for That's right. Right? Because one of the things that we heard from people was, well, I mean, I live in I live in an imperfect place, but I live there. Right. That's right.
So you gotta protect me. And and we have had real issues about that. And so and it was very confusing and who to go to and who can
who can help me in this situation. So And there were no easy answers. But But there will be I mean, there will be some answers as a couple of these existing projects that are on the books right now come to fruition. You could, for instance, recognize that you need the Reagan Reagan Group to have two units that are available for this purpose.
with the problem has to pay the rent for that unit as That's right. At Regan for that tenant to live there while their unit is brought to the code. Right. For instance. Right.
Yeah. I think the key is just mean, whether it's it's some level, and then you and you you would have to run it through the lawyers, but, like, making sure that the landlord is on the hook for the alter the alternative housing. Right. And it'll make the repairs go faster, and it'll you know, and there are systems in place in the schools that if you're displaced like that, you can keep keep going to school, but you won't want someone. So it wouldn't necessarily have to be in Croton, you wanna have some sort of it have to be within a certain radius or some sort of and it might be a hotel. It might be, you know, or might be he might be able to set
square footage requirements for the unit or things like that. Yeah. But but but but the feeling that a community is taking care of its own, so to speak. Right. Exactly. Yes. Right.
Yeah. Because the tones that you create. That's right. And there could be so many different issues depending upon the family makeup. Like you say, somebody might be in school. So somebody might be a single person, which is not that's not their issue, but they have other issues. Right. Also, I wanted to ask you, you know, the ADL, what do they ADUs?
necessarily accessory apartments? No. They are. They it's just another term for accessory. But but wasn't there that whole movement that would allow people to actually build something separate, you know, so that it wouldn't be maybe the house that they bought. They could make an apartment in the building, but also the possibility that they could actually build something additional on their property. Yeah. So Was that did those laws cover both of those possibilities?
They do. I believe so. So I believe our current code doesn't allow for you to build outside the envelope of your building No. For ADU. But, for instance, the county model ordinance IDUs, I believe, does. Right. So that would be more consistent with what Is that something that we would wanna
Oh, yeah. That's we think that the next step would be to take the county model, start there, and consider how to adapt that maybe as is, maybe with some modifications to become our
Allows building outside the envelope. Allows a lot. Okay. So the county already has that. The county has a model. A new a new accessory dwelling unit model. Okay. It's just the model. Right? It has no force of law. The county doesn't regulate local land use.
It's a draft for diligence about the future. Yeah. And then we can figure out if it's a if it's appropriate. What's appropriate from it and what isn't. So do you have any idea
This is There's a couple. I mean, there's a couple of different possible issues. Reasons. Yeah. And and so we also traditionally run with the owner, not with the land and also but then then you get also possibilities
that it's getting into the issues of no one wants to build engineer near their house. Right. Nobody wants to. People don't people don't wanna have to be subject to survey by the you know, it sort of is opening your pocketbook or you're opening up pretty sure assessed valuation. That is They're right. You're accepting the stuff too. That's Yeah. But it needs to vary also. Also it also has several somewhat, I would say, somewhat arbitrary, requirements with no ability to modify them. There's no there's no appeal process. There's no anything. You either match these four requirements or you don't match these four requirements. So, so it doesn't leave any room. We have a lot of really funky size shaped houses where it doesn't quite match what that rule says. So I think there there are opportunities to increase
the effectiveness of having an a d an ADU ordinance. I would say the village was forward looking originally and the fact that we have an accessory dwelling unit. Oh, absolutely. You know, survive it as well. Would
You make that a recommendation? I mean It is it is recommendation. We were In fact, we we yeah. We modeled in the Not everybody wants to live in a in a larger development. You know what I mean? Oh, absolutely. Lots of people just didn't love the idea of being in a home, in a residential home. And, actually, and and I would say that there's a two fold benefit here, and maybe this is what you're going through, Adam, is that you have to benefit for the tenant,
but also for the property owner. And this is something I know very explicitly. People have said that the fact that I own a small multifamily of 22 units is made impossible for me to stay in the That's right. After I retired because I have an absolute income. It's Social Security would be ludicrous
thing to attempt to live on Social Security. So it's interesting because I I just got this a a magazine, and they'll talk about housing. And they always do. And so the housing industry should embrace aging at home. And they talk about multigenerational forever homes.
You know? There's a lot of fine details. Yeah. That's I mean, that was its roots originally. Right? It was this idea that Croton, you'd want to have units, the houses in Croton that you could then kind of give to your kids and stay inside of. Well,
you stay there, your mother would be able to come and live with you. But that's how you got a lot of unknown
accessory apartments. You know? Your mother or your mother-in-law were just staying there, and they put a little kitchen in and Exactly. The bathroom, bathroom, and and then then the the the mother, you know, becomes deceased. And and then all of sudden, you got this already there. So it might well rent You know? So, you know, that's the Yeah. That's how it happens. Yeah. Those those those regularly
come before the zoning board where we see people responding to what what Not too regular. Yes.
could we enlarge the multi what is it called? The zoning of the area Two family and then it goes to multiple family. Yeah.
That's actually in the regulations is that is consider there's an area that's two family that you could consider being multifamily, and they could and there are especially if you look at what it's covering, there are areas that are adjacent to the two family areas and, like, Maple Street that could also be added to the two family area. And I think that gets to, I guess, what you're saying and also kind of one of the things that I thought about too is that we have some of the on Grand Street, especially in these multi these old multiuse buildings that are clearly part of the Croton fabric. But Yep. If you if that got torn down, whether you'd even be allowed to rebuild it. And it's you you're stuck with a 100 year old. You go into them and you look at the basements and you're like, wow. That is a 100 year old plumbing and a 100 year old. And that that is, you know, those are apartments that there's a place that we already have apartments, and then it would be we could add apartments that are similar in character, or we could allow more renovation of those units in a way that allows them to be, you know, better code, better places to live.
And I think that gets to my larger point, which I think, you know, we tend to want Croton to stay the same, which I think is a great instinct. And I think but I think we don't want it to lock it into place as to create Colonial Williamsburg. To maintain Croton being the same requires there to be constant change. Kind of an upgrading and improvement. Although the butter churner. Yeah. There are probably butter churners in some of those business. So
just sitting here while this conversation is going on and and I I was the one that went back to the 1977 master plan, but where they were anticipating 12,000 people by 2000. But since 1977, and I'm just thinking about developments. Obviously, there's more housing that's been developed than in developments per se. But just in developments, since that that period of time up till now, they the developments have accounted for approximately 500 to 550 Families. Houses. And that's not very many since 1977.
was 500 houses. Right? I don't know. I have that ad. Just I just probably the flat. Right? I mean, the Sprite. I I mean, I Oh, I think Harmon actually was more. Think it was over a thousand. That's probably just counting that. Yeah. I think it was over a thousand altogether. But I'm thinking about, you know, from from north to south or or whatever way you you got a scenic ridge, you got a a west wind, you got Arrowcrest, you got River Landing, you got a 0.5 Moon Bay. All that adds up to 500 or so. Amazing.
We haven't even talked about the demographics in terms of trying to to get both young people to be able to move here. There are literally, I think, weeks, sometimes months that go by before someone is born Yes. In the village. In the village. So I think we want to get our birth rate up a little bit. And also, all know empty nesters who've lived in the village and we're looking for to downsize and really warrant those opportunities. And so now they're in Ossining or Absolutely. We
want to keep them here as well. Right. That's right. Yeah. And, also, I think, you know, one thing that we really don't have is is you come over to college, and you either live with your parents or you live noncrowded. Mhmm. Those are your options, really. Yeah. When we have, like, very few 20 year olds, I mean, I don't know what the exact numbers, but I would guess our number of 20 year olds living, like, in is gonna be tight. In their twenties. Yeah.
Or or they don't live here at all. Oh, they That I'm saying it's lower now. It's lower down. Got it. It. Got it. Yeah.
And, you know, we've even, you know, talked from time to time about our first responders,
Right. Find it more and more difficult To recruit. Yeah. And and to have affordable housing.
And our yeah. There's a number of people that grow in the fire department who don't live in Croton. Oh, yeah. Have the ties to it. Correct. You know, we'll lose them if our teachers. Yeah. So
It seems that a big goal of the village has been for a really long time to have a community center.
Yeah. I mean, mean, was sort of, I guess, from a different experience as in part of the Cortlandt recreation advisory committee. I well, you you have to worry about those, though, because, like, the the team center at the Cortlandt Town Center, which was part of the building of the Cortlandt Town Center is is just an empty building because you can't get teens to go. So you don't end up being so, like, the I think developers are very happy to build you a community center. This is just an empty room that they add on to the back.
There was an effort about fifteen years ago to have a community center. A big effort. I mean, what the whole committee and we put out RFPs and we were looking to do it at we now have the Reagan property, the Katz property. And and we got it really came to nothing because we just it it was not
something that that developers could make money on, and so they weren't willing to invest in it. And we weren't willing we didn't have the money to put that kind of thing together. And that's why I'm, you know, not struggling, but, you know, it's a big question mark about how do you define what the amenity would be and then how you properly incentivize them, get their interest in doing that because as Trustee globally says, they may not make money out on that specific thing, it pencils well into their overall Yeah. Projects that we can we we need to do some more homework on that. Really, we'll on that one. Yeah. Yeah. In order to come up with the right ideas.
What do they think? I mean, there's always so there's more assets that are community like, the more things that bring the community together. The best. My wife and I were talking about that. I'm just the solid parking. It's a and it's very existence makes you kind of cross paths with people. And that's, like, that I think that those things
you know, that's what we need to build. So You know, even in even in smaller, you know, communities, you see these things sprouting up and, you know, and and I'm, you know, I'm not suggesting this, but even, you know, an aquatic center or just, you know, something Yeah. That'd be great. Indoor.
Or I mean Well, a pool is right behind that community center on the list of things that comes up every few years. Yeah.
You know? Yeah. I think that was partly downfall of what I was just talking about. The the idea of having a pool was just not
doable. Right. In in Montgomery County, it was literally the county executive saying, I'm gonna I'm gonna give the the rights to build an office building to whoever builds me wants to build me a theater right there, but and you you could do that then. And it's been very successful. It was right across the street from a metro stop. Yes.
Became a viable although this would be TOD and there's our own version of And also and and also, I think it's come up a couple of times in other community groups I'm in is that, you know, the the room down that way downstairs Yep. Ends up being in the library rooms, especially as the school is kind of when I was a kid, the school rented itself out a lot more easily, I think, than they can really do nowadays. So you end up with fewer public spaces. Yeah. Well, and probably, you know, you know, not, you know, not getting ahead of our skis here, but it's it's probably
the the the proper definition is not one thing. It's, you know, something That's right. Something that may do a lot of things. The management of I agree with that a floor, 2nd Floor. I agree with that a lot. Yep. Including the arts. The notion that you can come up with the one perfect thing. Right. And also maybe give up on the idea that adults can make something cool enough for teenagers. Well, there is that. Well, we'll we'll have to create a team so it can be done for the task force. Anyway,
I think you guys did a great job on your report and all the work and the suggestions and recommendations. Great. I expect that you're gonna be on our backs in the coming in
the coming a year ahead. We will. We will. I certainly I'm sure it's too proud to be happy to be invited back. No. I I feel I feel like a kid, like a 12 year old kid who's been given a $100 in a candy store. That's that's that's how good. And choice spending.
And here's an example there were for the recycling department and the personnel line. It seems as though we we went over budget somewhat dramatically, but that's because we've made the amendments to the year and only draw from that account as as the recycling services are provided. It just kinda gives us an accurate number. Alright. I'll just take a second. Is were there any particular or specific questions about the expense part of the year to date report? Just but it it feels like we're on track, though, when everything catches up. And then Yes. Yes. After and I'll I'll let manager, Healy, add if he wanted to make highlight anything in particular. But it it seems that our expenses are pretty in line with the budget. They're a handful of over overages, but nothing dramatically large, like, out of the ordinary for our our regular operations.
So, yeah, so now I brought up here the the revenue report. What I what I like to highlight is a few few a few lines where we did better than expected or we we received more money than originally budgeted for, which and then that will segue into the the overall summary. So on page let's see here on page one. As you may know, within the last few years, Westchester County increased the the sales tax rate. We've also seen a lot more activity, generally speaking, with the sales tax. So I'll draw your attention to this line. I don't know how easy it is to see on the screen. But our original budget for sales tax was $1,450,000 and the year to date received is $1,690,000 And we actually will be receiving after June our second quarter twenty twenty two sales tax.
So Treasurer, how do we actually receive the increments from the county annually? Or is it on a quarterly basis? When does the cash come into our coffers?
So we receive sales tax quarterly. Quarterly. And they based on the calendar year quarter. So in July, we'll receive the second quarter of twenty twenty two's sales tax. And what well and the way we account for that with our fiscal year not being in line with the calendar years, we'll allocate it one month of that. Excuse me. Yeah. Excuse me. Two months of that to the fiscal twenty twenty two year and then the one month for June of our fiscal twenty three. So this is one of the accounts where we not only have we already exceeded our fiscal 'twenty two budget, but we'll even receive a little bit more once we get that money in July now appropriately. And
so I guess that's what I was hoping to say. Then but for the subsequent two quarters of three quarters, two quarters of this fiscal year that we're in, it could actually go higher, couldn't it for like that last quarter, it could be higher than we'd anticipated? Yes.
I mean, think the answer to your question is yes. We've seen an increase. I mean, we had back in 2019, the state give the Westchester County the 1% additional sales tax, which was a a lifesaver for many governments with COVID. And that has the trend of increased sales tax has continued since 2019 as, you know, the price of goods go up, people pay more sales tax, and then that in turn gets paid to the various municipal authorities.
But did we I don't recall. Did we anticipate a greater amount of sales tax in our 2023?
Yes. We did. We So we're not as likely to exceed to get the exceedance that we have this time? It's still a conservative number. It will likely be exceeded if we if we see our our trends continue. But it's I think we budgeted 1.75 for this budget year and then fiscal year '22, we had 1.45.
Mhmm. So Well, and with with this unusual circumstance that we're all living under of rising prices that inevitably, you know, yields a higher amount of sales tax. Yes. Yes. We don't wish we don't wish it to to get it that way. We wish it, you know, to be based on vigorous economic activity, but it's just, you know, one of the facts of of economics. It's gonna matter that way. So
I'll move on to page three of the report. I want just to draw your attention to the the core revenues, the village justice court. We also it receives a little over 20% more than we originally thought you did. This is likely because of the the courts being more active than catching up after the pandemic.
And, with the courts, the courts are behind in reporting their revenue, so we anticipate that number will go up
as well. Yeah. So we'll because we'll be expecting the report for May. And then also, there was something held up the the report from December. So we're hoping that the state will straighten it out and send us their invoice, and then we'll recognize the revenue. So we'll see that go up even even more. Moving forward to page four, I would draw your attention to two. Just one on this page. The our building permits also, we saw more activity. That's that's a $14.40 $25.55. Can you make that bigger? Yes. I can. It just we started losing the margins. Is that a little bit Oh, wow.
Correct? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. That's a 50% higher than the original budget. So I I have the number one. And that's that's economic activity at least. You know, it's construction
development activity. Depending on the projects that come in. Right? You know, there's larger projects generate larger building permit fees. So when you have, you know, a a multimillion dollar house that's being built, that's gonna bring in a lot of money or, you know, for example, a a larger development, like, what's gonna go in on Maple Street, that will be, you know, there'll be a a larger building permit fee for that. So
continuing to page six, we're looking at line 84540. 1640, that's ambulance charges. I know Phil Dinkler had also as we had reported increased activity or increased call volume for the EMS, and we can we can see that reflected in our revenues. We were they're all just over 30% higher than originally budgeted. So I well, I believe the the fiscal twenty three budget is still relatively conservative. We did increase the the average as well.
Is that There was I'm not I I'm not entirely sure. I know when when the pandemic had first started, Janine had reached out to Proclaim, which is the billing company that we use, and had changed the way that our fees were calculated so that the village would, you know, end up on the on the higher scale of things. And so because we didn't have a full accounting of what that would look like yet, I had I did not change the budget amount that we put into the ambulance charges because I didn't want to change it and then find out that I went too high. And so now that we see that, you know, a combination of increased call volume and a change in the billing cycle has, you know, generated a significantly higher revenue item here, we can you know, next year, we can look at this and we can likely raise this this line. But it all comes from insurance? It all comes from insurance. The village the village don't have insurance that covers it. They don't get a charge. Correct. We we practice soft billing. Yeah. If somebody is not able to pay or doesn't have the means to to pay, there's no punitive
action that's taken. It might also be people getting more used to the insurance system and understanding how it works. Yes. So
carrying on to Page seven, this is where there's two accounts. We saw one of our larger larger than expected revenues is the parking lot, the train station parking lot for the daily activity where our original budget had 204,000, but our year to date collected was eight hundred fifteen thousand. So we're we're at 280% of the of the budget or or almost three times as much as it's expected. Now as far as dollar amounts, I don't again, I don't know how easy it is to see on the screen, but that that's $524,000 over what was originally budgeted.
Yeah. And we're modestly you know, we're, you know, happily, at least a little a little bit above our estimate on the on the on the permits.
Well, the parking lot so there's two permit lines. The the parking lot line is the seventeen twenty, which is the second line, and that is just a little bit under. Oh. It's 99.1%. Oh, was looking at the But getting it getting to 99.1%, I consider a victory. And
on on the the thirtieth. Thirtieth. So traditionally, we always see a drop off in the June through August permits. Yeah. Primarily teachers and and college students who don't have to commute into the city. And so we saw that drop off this year as well, modest. We it's about 30 permits less than what we've done than what we did in the spring, but we anticipate that those people will be back in in September.
So one more line on the on the same page that we we did better than budgeted was our general public works charges. I generally I don't I don't know if we've really budgeted much historically for them. We kind of we we make amendments as we as we have services requested as opposed to some of our other revenues, which are somewhat regular. So on a little further up on page seven. You'll see the line fifty one ten seventeen ten, public works charges where we are only budgeted or or, excuse me, our revised budget was on 1,000, and we go up to 21,000 in change.
And that's that's when DPW is used for setting up for, like, a movie night at the school or turning on the lights at Firefighters' field, that sort of thing. That's that's the revenue that comes in.
And speaking of, or movie nights, it's good segue into the recommendation department. And I just wanna make sure I'm on your line. 817 excuse me. 70202001. We budgeted $100,000 and collected 203,000. So we're there's another good place where we collected a $101,103,000 amount over the original budget.
So and that's that number has been raised back up to its, you know, more normal level this year.
And that also, right, result of some more normalcy after the the heavier part of the pandemic. Yes. And the last the last thing I'll note on revenue report just for the Okay. I just wanna make something. Greg, Greg, just a personal question on on this page on 7180.
Actually, I've got a friend visiting on on Thursday who's coming up in his boat from Wilmington, North Carolina, and told me that he's parking at the 0.5 Moon Bay Marina. Oh. So does he pay a charge for that? Do we get it?
So that's why. We don't control the afternoon bay marina. That's private. So there are but I'm sure there's probably a charge that he's paying someone.
So or trustee Zavala, was that your your question? Don't know. Cut you off. Alright. So the last thing I'll I'll mention too, similarly with the way we the sales tax I mentioned will allocate it between the fiscal years for the Water Fund and Sewer Fund as well. The Water Fund, without knowing ahead of time, seems it seems that we've under we've received less revenue than budgeted, but the the water bills going out this week will will make this number go up. Remember the reading the reading period is March, April, and May. So when we send out the bills, we'll be able to adjust the revenue accordingly with the final billing there for fiscal twenty two.
And is that do you think just the the ongoing issue with water in terms of more conservation and, you know, wiser use and all that?
With regard to the use in rates, we'll have to see whether the rates need to stay the same. Financially, though, I can say that the rate increases were responsible. And and from this report, you you would expect that out of four quarters that we built for, you'd be around 75%. So the budget on the here, we we collected. Excuse me. We billed 78.2% of what was originally budgeted. So it's about where you would expect it. The Sewer Fund, which is has been doing good, is also doing great in fiscal twenty two as far as collecting the references, budgeting. Starting with the Water Fund, we'll we'll see where the we'll see what the numbers look like once the dust settles, so to speak. I mean, I think we're at least it's a heading in a better direction. I don't know.
But we are selling, I guess, I guess we're selling more. Right? Yes. Yeah. We're selling less. Right? Yes. Because of the big users
On the average, you know, based on if you recall, we had that slide during the budget presentation where we've over over the past number of years, we've seen about a 20% reduction in our total water usage. So and that, you know, that it's a combination of, you know, people fixing lines and using fixtures that use less water and, you know, just general you know, we haven't had a a drought in recent years, so there hasn't been much need for people to water their lawns and stuff like that. So it's it's a whole combination of factors. Alright. So you wanna give them the good news now? Yes. This is the. That's the little dry, but important.
Okay. So now this might be the oldest. This is the summary. Yes. So so the summary on the screen was the first draft of the summary, but I'll I'll give you the numbers from today. It's only slightly different, but still positive. So the originally, as the board, I'm sure, knows with fiscal twenty two, the budget included a plan deficit of 1,629,000. But we we because of the better than expected revenues, our revenues serve the revenues collected over the original budget is 1,329,000, and we were able to keep the expenses and encumbrances under the budget by about 177,000 for a total, I'll say surplus or elaborate surplus of $1,606,000, which means it's, now these are these numbers will fluctuate a little bit as we get closer to the audit. We'll be getting some invoices for the fiscal twenty two in. Although we do we do have to look forward to the sales tax and mortgage tax revenues. But what it means is that whereas the fiscal twenty two budget planned a $1,600,000 deficit, we were able to manage this surplus in a way that we're we're gonna use very minimal amount of fund balance. So as of right now, what were we what were we talking about earlier, Brian, about 20,000? Rough rough rough roughly speaking With the current amount of of of fund balance used, which is excellent. And that's that's just some of the, you know, of the best news that manager really and I can can really discuss. And
and it appear to not to jump ahead too many months, but it sets us up better for the the budget process that begins in the in the next winter, next March. Right? But we're looking at Correct. Healthier numbers,
generally speaking. Yes. Yes. Maintaining fund balance is is fantastic for for looking forward and and and being able to manage our
And, you know, this is also very good news because we had planned as use we had planned to use the money that we're going to receive from the cash property for replenishing the fund balance. And now that we are not going to have to do that, we can have further conversations about how we want to see that money invested. You know? Some of the some of the options that we can do is, you know, setting up specific reserve funds to use that money so that we won't necessarily have to go out, you know, for debt. And, you know, as once we once we close on the property and we have that money, then we can have further conversations about that. But it's really it's a very good thing, and it sets us up very well for the for the future.
Correct. From the federal government. Correct. And so in the future. One more time. Yes. July 13. Yes. And we and, know, we have to hope that as we, you know, go through this year, we'll continue to see our revenues climb. And as we start the budget process next year, we'll have to see where that where that leaves us. But even if we have to you know, it's not it's not unheard of, and it's at you know, it's probably more realistic that, you know, you're gonna use some fund balance every every year. You know, 400,000 is cut is on the high side, but, you know, using 200,000 is not a is not an unheard of thing. Right. So As long as you're replenishing it, you know Exactly. Good time. Yeah. So, I mean, you would normally expect, as you can see from this budget, we came in $277,000 under in our expenses. That's probably a normal thing, somewhere in the 200,000 to 300,000 range because you're always gonna not you know, you're gonna spend a little bit more on this line. You're gonna spend a little bit less on this line, you know, when it all adds up. And, you know, that's that's kind of the range I would think you wanna be in the the low 200 thousands Right. You know, of fund balance. I I think it shows a very
successful conservative approach. Yes. Alright. And then it doesn't even take into account, you know, the transactions or new enterprises that could begin. Yes.
Yeah. I mean, we we also have to remember, you know, the hopefully, we get the solar canopies up for the next year, and then that that takes care of that 400,000 because, you know, that will be Right. Additional revenue. That's right. So Very good. Yep. There's lots lots of exciting things coming.
Excellent news. Thank you, manager. Thank you. Thank you. You, Treasurer. Thank you, Treasurer. Yes. And Thank you. Before we head out, I think you have a quick Oh, yes. Update. Yeah. So I'm just gonna the mayor asked me to give a brief update on the Merman Oak. And so I just wanted to share here. So let me just pull up my notes. I had a meeting last Thursday with DPW and Recreation to discuss the tree, and we've come up with a couple of items that we're going to do. The first was to contact the miller who's gonna be able to turn the branches and the and a portion of the trunk of the tree into usable lumber. The second was that we accepted an offer from a local girl scout troop in Croton to plant a new tree in the vicinity of the Salad Park. And the third is to develop plans for memorial for the tree that will incorporate a plaque along with wood of the tree. And so we're gonna be working on these items concurrently to make sure that we can move ahead on these.
Manager, can we may have done this informally, but can can we talk about just the establishment of a convenient portal for people to send in additional ideas that they have? Sure. Yeah. People can because you you you it's hard to walk in the street without somebody in a in a very nice way having a good idea. And and I've been, you know, jotting them down, but I'd love to be able to say, you know, that on the maybe the recreation tab of the website,
you can just type in your good idea. Yeah. All all people have to do is just go to the send us comments button on the website. It's right on the main page, and they can address it to my office. And, you know, people have been doing that already. I've gotten a bunch of emails about it. And, you know, we'll we'll hold on to them all, and we'll review them. So but, yeah, you know, that's great. Happy to happy to hear from people.